HCG buys novels by Brahmachari and Iacopelli

Hachette Children’s Group (HCG) has acquired a climate change middle-grade novel by Sita Brahmachari and a gymnastics-themed YA by US author Jennifer Iacopelli.     

Brahmachari’s novel Where the River Runs Gold is about two children who live in a world where the bees have died so children must work on farms to pollinate the crops.

She said: “Where The River Runs Gold is set in the fictional Kairos Lands where young people pay the heaviest price for the destruction wrought by climate change, food shortages and the devastation of the natural world. Students are protesting around the globe for the same reason that I have felt driven to write this - ultimately hopeful - novel. The window of opportunity for caring for our planet and each other is closing fast. Where The River Runs Gold pitches readers into a future that explores what the world might look like if young protesters are not heard today.”

Samantha Swinnerton, senior commissioning editor acquired world rights in a two-book deal from Sophie Gorell Barnes at MBA Literary Agents and will publish in July on the Orion Children’s Book imprint.

Break the Fall, Iacopelli’s novel, follows a gymnast's journey as she and her teammates find their voices after their coach is arrested for sexual assault. It will be published on the Hodder Children’s Books imprint in Spring 2020.

Commissioning editor Polly Lyall Grant acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Alice Sutherland-Hawes of the Madeleine Milburn Agency and will work with US publisher Razorbill PRH on a global launch.

“Break The Fall is compulsive and thrilling, with timely themes of #MeToo and perfectly pitched writing – Jennifer takes the reader into an exclusive, electrifying world of competitive sports, and shows us the unstoppable power that women have in triumphing over adversity together,” said Lyall Grant.